Subject Guides: NUR 100: Intro to Professional Nursing (York): APA Resources

Intro to APA

An "in-text citation" is a short version of a citation found within the body of the text. In-text citations allow people reading your work to look up the longer version of the citation in your Reference list. Every time you attribute an idea or fact to someone else in your own work, you have to put an in-text citation in parentheses at the end of the idea that you're citing (APA, 2021). For example:

In one study that looked at middle and high school science reports, researchers found that fewer than 35% of the high schoolers correctly used in-text citations (Vieyra & Weaver, 2016).

You can also directly attribute the idea to the author in the text, but you still have to add a parenthetical note with the date of the citation directly following the name:

In a study that looked at middle and high school science reports, Vieyra and Weaver (2016) found that fewer than 35% of the high schoolers correctly used in-text citations.

There are different rules for how to list authors for in-text citations depending on how many authors there are for a work:

For 1 author, simply use the surname of the author (without any suffixes such as Jr., Sr.)
- (Weaver, 2016)
For 2 authors, name both authors whenever you note their work. Use the word "and" between the authors' names within the body of the text and use the ampersand for a parenthetical citation.
- Vieyra and Weaver (2016) say that...
- (Vieyra & Weaver, 2016)
For 3 or more authors, list only the first author’s name followed by “et al.” in every citation, even the first. The only exception to this would be if doing so would create ambiguity between different sources. For an article by Johnson, Jones, and Jameson, 2020:
- Johnson et al. (2020) found...
- (Johnson et al., 2020)
If the work does not have an author, cite it by its title (if in text) or use the first word or two in the parentheses.

Each in-text citation you put in a paper corresponds to a Reference list at the back. The citations on this list have very strict rules regarding format, order of information, capitalization, and punctuation.

The Reference list should be entitled "References", bolded centered at the top of a new page, no underline or quotation marks.
- All lines after the first line of each entry in your reference list should be indented one-half inch (this is called a hanging indent)
Author names should be inverted so that the last name comes first, followed by a comma and the first and middle initials (if available): Jameson, J. J. Leave a space between the first and middle initials. Retain the order of authors’ names that is listed on the article/source.
For the title of the work, capitalize only the first letter of the first word in the title, except for proper nouns. For a two-part title, capitalize the first word of the second part of the title.
- The prevalence and quality of source attribution in middle and high school science papers
- Impact of COVID-19 on rural and remote student placements in Australia: A national study.
- Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban.
- The hobbit, or, There and back again.
For journal titles, capitalize all major words (British Journal of Nursing). Italicize the journal title and the volume number, but NOT the issue number. Do not put a space between the volume number and the issue number.
- Iranian Journal of Pathology, 17(1)
- Clinical Neuropsychiatry, 18(6)
- Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 35(4)
If your source has a DOI, you should include it. Do not put a period after the DOI. DOIs should be formatted like a URL: https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy
- https://doi.org/10.1111/maq.12683

Let's practice writing our own citations. Take a look at the citations in this document: Work in groups of two or three to create a correct APA citation based on the information in the screenshots. Use the resources listed in the Parts of an APA Citation box on this page for reference.

Looking for a shortcut?

Many of our databases provide you with help formatting your citations according to APA, MLA, or other citation styles. In the EBSCO databases (CINAHL, PsycInfo, Academic Search Complete), look for the CITE icon to the right of the database record.